Hayley
Wickenheiser leaves a legacy beyond medals [ By Shannon Cleary ]
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On a Friday afternoon in November, I took my seven
year-old daughter to meet Rosie MacLennan, a trampoline gymnast, World Champion and Olympic gold medalist. Rosie stood casually, warmly in the front of the room at the Winter Sports Institute at Canada Olympic Park in Calgary as girls filed inside and sat cross-legged on the floor. Rosie spoke to an audience of young girls in sport, ranging in age from six to 16, about reaching their goals. She revealed her own first goal: to do a successful backflip. Rosie spoke about falling, hurting, failing, and feeling like she might never do it. And then one day, she did. At that moment in her session, she performed a quick and compact backflip as our girls sat in awe. Each girl in Rosie’s session, including my daughter, was there as part of the Canadian Tire Wickenheiser Female World Hockey Festival. Rosie was one of many inspirational presenters for the pre-tournament Makadiff Sessions, available to all festival participants. WickFest, as it’s affectionately known, takes place over two four-day weekends in November, with more than 1,500 female participants from across Canada. Although it includes a busy weekend of games for all-girl hockey teams from novice to midget AAA, it’s more than just a competition. It’s a celebration of girls in sport. And it all revolves around one special Canadian. “Have you seen Hayley?” became its own salutation among players and parents at WickFest. And more often than not, the answer was an excited, “Yes!” Hayley weaved between events and arenas, hopping on and off the ice with the hundreds of girls who were there to play some hockey. She stopped by the Timbits Showcase, in which my five-year-old daughter also skated, to meet the four all-girls Timbits teams who play for Girls Hockey Calgary (GHC). GHC and the Rocky Mountain Female Hockey League are also partners with WickFest. This season, GHC alone has 625 registered female players. And those numbers continue to grow. The Timbits players who were there that day knelt on the ice as Hayley Wickenheiser stood beside them, lending her words and warmth to these little girls in skates who can see themselves in Hayley. She left more than one parent breathless as she spoke to the group of five and six-year-olds.
24 | Calgary Hockey Magazine
Olympic medalists Rosie MacLennan, Erica Wiebe and Stephanie Labbé at WickFest Photo Provided By Dave Holland “That’s like being on the ice with Sidney Crosby,” said one of the Timbits coaches, whose two daughters play for GHC. “That’s the Sydney Crosby of women’s hockey.” “Or Sidney Crosby is the Hayley Wickenheiser of men’s hockey,” another parent said, as the joke often goes. But you could argue that neither is true. There really is no one like Hayley Wickenheiser. Few people have done what she’s done to grow the game of hockey to a population of Canadians who were once overlooked. Hayley didn’t just help make women’s hockey valuable, she worked hard to make it accessible, and natural, and exciting. During that pre-tournament session with Rosie MacLennan, the girls were invigorated by Rosie’s surprise backflip. One girl shot up her hand. “Can you do a front flip?” she asked.